Why hydrogen will fuel future cars

The effort to find an alternative to gasoline for fueling cars moves forward every year. From individuals refining their own biodiesel to the big automakers, and even oil companies, there is huge momentum in alternative fuel research. The reasons are many: Gas engines emit greenhouse gases; the quest for oil involves us in international conflicts; and government reports say that we will hit peak oil in the next 30 years. Peak oil is the point where oil production begins to decline, when we've taken all the easily accessible oil from the ground, and it becomes increasingly expensive to get at what's left. China's growing economy and projected need for gasoline puts added pressure on the peak oil timeline.

There are lots of possible replacements for gasoline, but they all have drawbacks. I'm backing hydrogen. I've been following the development of fuel cell cars since GM launched its AUTOnomy concept car in 2002. As with any new technology, fuel cell cars have their critics. Here are my arguments for why fuel cells will power passenger cars in the future.

• Proof of concept
  Every major automaker has a fuel cell research car that works. I've driven many of them, and the driving experience is very good. A fuel cell car is really just an electric car that powers its motors from a fuel cell. The fuel cell takes hydrogen and combines it with oxygen to make water, H2O. The byproduct of this process is electricity, which gets fed to the motors. Most importantly, the electrical output of a fuel cell pack is strong enough to give an electric car reasonable acceleration.
• Hydrogen safety
  Fuel cell critics point out that hydrogen is flammable, but so is gasoline. Unlike gasoline, which can pool up and burn for a long time, hydrogen dissipates rapidly. Gas tanks tend to be easily punctured, thin-walled containers, while the latest hydrogen tanks are made from Kevlar. Also, gaseous hydrogen isn't the only method of storage under consideration--BMW is looking at liquid storage while other researchers are looking at chemical compound storage, such as boron pellets.
• Hydrogen production
  The most common way to produce hydrogen is electrolysis, running a current through water and causing the hydrogen molecules to separate from the oxygen molecules. Critics point out that it takes more electricity to create the hydrogen then it will generate in a fuel cell. While that is true, it also takes energy to create a gallon of gasoline. Oil has to be pumped, transported, and refined. Electricity for electrolysis can come from clean sources, such as hydro or solar, which negates the energy cost argument. Also, researchers are looking into many different ways to create hydrogen, from using switchgrass in a thermochemical reaction to finding microbes that excrete it. We haven't hit on the best way to make hydrogen yet, but there are many promising avenues.

  Correction: It's been pointed out to me, and I've confirmed from other sources, that most hydrogen is currently produced through steam reforming of natural gas.

• Hydrogen in the environment
  A study from the California Institute of Technology says that there is bound to be leakage if we mass-produce hydrogen, and hydrogen destroys ozone in the same way that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) do. We stopped using CFCs in appliances for just this reason, so why should we start using hydrogen in cars? The authors of the study qualify their conclusions heavily, writing that ozone destruction is only a possibility. They write that man-made hydrogen might get absorbed into soil instead of accumulating in the upper atmosphere. Also, knowing this potential danger in advance can prompt us to take preventative measures. For example, greater care can be taken in designing hydrogen production and filling systems to minimize leakage.
• Vehicle cost
  Many articles I've read covering specific fuel cell cars point out the cost of the car, usually in the millions of dollars. But this dollar figure has no relation to any hydrogen fuel cell production vehicle that will eventually be offered for sale. These research cars are hand-built and use experimental technology created in limited amounts. The most expensive material used in these cars is the platinum covering the nodes in the fuel cells. Other than that, the car consists of motors, wheels, a frame, and body. And there are even fuel cells under development using different, cheaper materials.

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It's important to keep in mind that a fuel cell car is just an electric car that happens to derive its electricity from a hydrogen-oxygen reaction. Any other source of electricity could work. The reason that automakers are focusing on hydrogen is because they find it the most practical solution for achieving the performance we've come to expect from our cars.

In an article from Automotive Engineering International, Volkswagen's Professor Jurgen Leohold sees hydrogen fuel cells as being an interim solution. He's looking at a long-term solution of better batteries. And it's true that if we had batteries that could run a car for 350 miles, then be recharged in five minutes, we wouldn't need to consider hydrogen fuel cells. There's a lot of current research going into new battery technology and supercapacitors, but that's a column for another time.